Your Farm

Although he is the general manager of the 3,500-acre, 3,300-cow Del Rio Dairy in Friona, Texas, Nathan Morony only entered the agriculture industry less than five years ago.

Nathan and his wife, Crystal, met during high school. After dating through college, the two got married and lived in Arizona, where Crystal’s family originally operated Del Rio Dairy. There, Crystal did some bookkeeping with the farm while Nathan worked in construction.

In 2008, Joe Macedo was enjoying his life as a dairy farmer, milking about 3,200 cows on four dairies in Tipton, Calif. A year later, things took a drastic turn.
Milk prices dropped while feed costs skyrocketed. The negative margins lasted for months, making cash flow an ongoing struggle. Macedo took the advice of his banker to cut feed costs by 10 percent in an attempt to save money.

Steven Bunse is a fourth-generation dairy farmer operating Bunse Dairy in Cosby, Mo. Steven and his wife, Carole, raised three children on the same dairy his great grandfather started when he immigrated from Germany. The couple milks 40 cows and farms 440 acres, growing hay, corn and beans. The Bunses joined Dairy Farmers of America when it merged with their original cooperative in 1998. Steven and Carole were...

Dan Duhalde, his wife, Patty, and daughter, Nicole, tried something new in 2013 by moving their operation from California to Windsor, Colo. The family milks 125 cows, offers farm tours with a viewing area in the milking parlor and operates a petting zoo.

1920

The year Dan’s grandfather, Louis, started a dairy in El Monte, Calif.

“My dad worked with his father, and then I worked the dairy with my father. In 2013, my dad decided to sell the operation. I wanted to dairy on...